Xiaomi Has Established a Payment Company

Xiaomi registered “Beijing Xiaomi Payment Technology Ltd.” on December 26th, 2013, as disclosed by Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce. Leijun, CEO of Xiaomi, is the chairman of the board. Another two co-founders of Xiaomi, Hong Feng and Lin Bin, are board directors of the payment company.

No surprise. The convenience of making payments is very important for monetizing any content or services on mobile. Mobile payment has become strategic tool for some Chinese tech companies such as Tencent and Alibaba that more financial products are expected to be created based on it. Alipay Wallet, the mobile payment app of Alibaba, has been way more than a payments app but a combination of digital loyalty program platform, taxi hauling service, among others. Tencent is heavily promoting WeChat Payment expecting users to consume everything within the mobile messaging app.

To operate payment services, Xiaomi still needs a license. But it’s not that hard nowadays that many Chinese internet companies, including Baidu and Sina, have obtained licences.

TechNode is a tech blog, written in both English and Chinese, focused on startups and tech happenings in China and Asia in general. TechNode also organizes TechNode Touch (TNT), a monthly meetup for startups, and ChinaBang Awards, an annual event that rewards the best Chinese startups, in Chinese tech cities. TechNode is the official partner of TechCrunch in China and manages TechCrunch.cn and TechCrunch conferences in China.